Hellgate: London

By Sam Waldron

I can’t help but get excited about Hellgate: London. The concept – in the future, all Hell rather literally breaks loose in Britain’s capital – may be somewhat clichéd, but I’m willing to overlook that for the spiritual successor to the Diablo franchise. Besides, even though this is a well-trodden path in terms of plot, it’s one that works pretty damn well. Think of Doom, Diablo, and Oblivion, for starters – and these are actually a useful set of games to be thinking of, to get a picture of Hellgate: London.

As already established, HGL follows in the footsteps of the immensely popular Diablo games. Flagship Studios is the new home of a number of former Blizzard North employees, so it will be interesting to see the extent to which HGL attacks World of Warcraft’s share of the MMO market. Certainly, there is a strong resemblance to Diablo here: it is, after all, an RPG with demons, randomized dungeons, and a strong emphasis on the multiplayer experience.

But (justifying my comparisons to Oblivion and Doom) HGL also combines first-person shooter elements. The modern setting throws guns into the mix, making a first-person view more desirable. But don’t expect too much from the FPS side of things. Where recent RPG/FPS crossover title Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl combined skilled aiming and careful stealth tactics with the story, inventory, and exploratory aspects of the role-playing genre, Hellgate: London combines the kill-everything-that-moves ethos with an emphasis on experience points and levelling up. What this boils down to is a strong auto-aim feature that is affected much more by character stats than player hand-eye coordination.

With those basics covered, let’s turn for a minute to the game’s story and setting. The year is 2038 and, with the Knights Templar long ago driven underground by France’s King Philip IV, and the modern world leaders too foolish to let their successors help, Hell’s minions have managed a full-scale invasion of Earth. Now, they are trying to remake the planet in the image of their home – and, really, who wants that? To put it mildly: things look grim. But there is hope. Those wily Freemasons were smart enough to make the London Underground demon-proof, so humankind at least has a convenient safe-haven and base of operations…

I said it was cliché, and I stand by that. But there’s something very appealing about the set-up. It is both epic and functional, and that’s pretty impressive. At the end of the day, I’m thrilled at the idea of wandering the streets of post-apocalyptic London, and I’m even more excited at the idea of doing it with a bunch of friends.

As a multiplayer title, HGL leans closer to Guild Wars than to World of Warcraft. Like Guild Wars, the ‘dungeon’ areas are all instanced, so everyone does not inhabit the same online world. Expectations were that, like Guild Wars, HGL’s multiplayer would involve no monthly fees. However, it now looks likely that Flagship will implement a compromise, with free standard multiplayer, but a monthly charge of US$10 for a premium account, which will allow more characters, access to content updates, and more multiplayer features (such as an expanded player-vs-player mode).

HGL features three ‘factions’, each with two classes to choose from (one more class per faction is expected for premium users, sometime after launch). The three factions pan the range of anti-demon warfare available in a world of high technology and high magic. The Cabalist faction consists of the true mystics, Evokers (with powerful offensive magic) and Summoners (who, unsurprisingly, summon things to fight for them). The Templars hark back to those possibly-never-existent days of chivalry, and feature the heavy-attacking Blademaster and defensive Guardian classes. Third are the Hunters, the most tech-savvy of the three factions; they are split between Marksmen (providing the most traditional FPS gameplay) and Engineers (experts with turret weapons, etc).

Because of the mix of close combat and ranged attacks available, HGL actually opts for a mix of first- and third-person gameplay. And there are numerous different weapon types (actually different, which is quite nice). By different, I mean they don’t simply have different damage stats; weapons do different kinds of damage – physical, fire, toxic, spectral, electric. The game boasts about a hundred different weapons types, with Diablo-esque randomized bonuses, etc, and the potential for player modification.

I could go on. But, really, all you need to know is that this is Diablo, in the future, with a hint of FPS. I hardly need say how much cause for excitement there is here. If you’re an RPG fan, the end of August is starting to look very good…

Until then, keep your crosshairs on NZGamer.com for all the best gaming previews, reviews, and news.

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